News relating to St Mary's Church, Eaton Bray.

News Archive

St Mary's Eaton Bray: April 2006

Prayer Group

After a break for Lent we resume after Easter with monthly prayer meetings commencing on May 2nd at 2pm at Sally Taylor's house. Further meetings will be on Monday 5th June and Monday 3rd July, venues to be announced. Evening meetings have been dropped due to lack of support.

Meetings, comprising a reading and prayers, last for 30-45 minutes and may be followed by tea or coffee and biscuits. If you are looking for a space for prayer please join us and/or talk to Brian Wyke or Sally Taylor.

Kagando Project

There is a jar for donations towards this year's Parish Project beside the notice board.

Please read the articles each month, and give this Ugandan Hospital your support.

The first fund-raising event will be a Beetle Drive in Edlesborough Village Hall on Friday 21st April, at 7.00pm. Adults £2, children £1 - an evening's fun for all the family. Tickets are available from Sally Taylor

Church Roof Update

Work on the Church Roof will begin on 18 April, and will include repairs to the damaged beams and releading of the whole of the naive.

The internal scaffolding should be gone in about six weeks' time, but there will be a lot of scaffolding outside for about three months.

Memorial Gift

Our new festival altar frontal, given in memory of Brock Shaw, will be dedicated on Easter Day at the Sung Eucharist.

Pots Needed

Gordon Gray has hundreds of seedlings that will soon need potting up to sell at the Carnival and the Open Gardens events. If you have unwanted flower-pots, Gordon would be please to receive them.

Church Cleaning

We urgently need more volunteers to help clean the church. The work is done in pairs; the day and time are flexible - if we have enough volunteers it works out once every 4-6 weeks. We also need more volunteers to clean the church brasses. If you can help please see one of the Church Wardens or contact Tracey Steele.

St Mary's Parochial Church Council

At the February meeting of the Parochial Church Council it was reported that the inaugural event to raise funds for the church roof, a coffee morning, was a great success raising a considerable sum.

Details of the upcoming Lent courses were outlined and it was suggested that all members of the PCC may like to attend at least some of the sessions. There will also be a Passovermeal in Church on Wednesday of Holy Week.

A Chairman has been found to start the ball rolling on the 'Friends of Edlesborough Church' project. Their first task is to get together a group of like minded people to take the plan forward.

All PCC members were reminded that they have to submit their nominations if they wish to continue as a member of the PCC.

Plans are in hand to replace the existing pulpit in church which is in a rather poor state. Designs for a new pulpit are to be drawn up and submitted for approval.

The Church architect has provided the specifications for the roof repairs and these have been passed to the builder to submit a quotation for the work.

There was a discussion about raising the awareness of legacies and the contribution they make to the Church finances.

The PCC met on 9th March. The path from the Church to the toilet in the Village Hall is now safe to use. The arrangement is for the toilet near the Green Room, accessed from the side door, to be available to the Church when services, such as weddings and funerals are being held. A grant to replace the cooker in the Village Hall has been obtained and as soon as it is installed a Sunday Luncheon Club will be instigated.

Work on Edlesborough Church will be completed in time for the Easter Day evening service to be held there.

Various events have been planned to raise funds for the Parish Project, Kagando, starting with a Beetle Drive at Edlesborough Memorial Hall on 21st April. The Open Gardens scheme will be held on Sunday 11 June when local gardens will be open to the public and refreshments and stalls will be available in Eaton Bray Village Hall. Other planned events include a Hog Roast in the Vicarage garden on 9th July (to be held early enough in the day to accommodate the football) and a Barn Dance on 30th September. It is hoped to have an African evening, details of which will be announced later.

Other fund raising plans were discussed, this time for repairs to the Church roof, with maybe a "talents" scheme, whereby parishioners are given a "talent" i.e. money, to use (legally!) to make more money. (Matthew 25 v14-30 was the inspiration)

A Vision for Action Study Pack has been received from the Diocese, which is a 6 week study course to be run later in the year.

A revised Electoral Roll for St Mary's is currently being prepared and it was agreed tha the enrolment forms for parishioners should be more easily available, perhaps by including them in the Welcome Pack for new residents.

The Church Mouse

Music At St Mary's

Music at St Mary's As part of the Bedfordshire Church Trail, on Sunday 7 May St Mary's Church in Eaton Bray will be hosting an afternoon of light classics, courtesy of the "Caroline & Friends" String Ensemble.

The concert starts at 2.30pm until 4pm and light refreshments (tea and cakes) will be included. All proceeds to the St Mary's Church Fabric Fund. Tickets £2 available from Barbara Marriage or on the door.

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Tuesday, 25 April at 8.00pm in Eaton Bray Village Hall (preceeded by the Annual Meeting of Parishioners to elect Churchwardens at 7.45pm) - Nomination forms for Churchwardens and P.C.C. members are available from the table beside the bookcase.

Financial accounts for 2005 to be presented at the meeting are now available. Please take a copy and bring it with you to the meeting - two versions are available, one set is the official set, signed by the independent examiners, and the second, a simpler extract of the figures, has been prepared for those who may appreciate less figures to peruse! Please take whichever version you prefer, the results are the same!

St Mary the Virgin, Edlesborough

The Easter Sunday Service at St. Mary The Virgin on April 16th will mark the reopening of the church after another major conservation contract. Highly skilled craftsmen have carried out major repairs to the chancel roof which had to be completely taken off and put back again. Although it is hard to see from the ground the roof is now covered by slates rather than concrete tiles. The buttresses have lost their concrete casing which has been replaced by beautiful, local stone again. Rain and high winds permitting the scaffolding will be taken down shortly.

Inevitably after such a major building project the ground is muddy so stout footwear is recommended.

The Churches Conservation Trust which is responsible for St. Mary The Virgin is working closely with the Parish Council to improve the access to the church and particularly to the churchyard.

St. Mary’s will be open from May to September on the first Sunday afternoon of the month as part of a local church trail initiative. If you would like to visit at other times, the keys are kindly held by Sandra Cain at the Bell and Hays IT.

If you have any queries about the church or could help in any way please contact
Chloe Cockerill
Regional Development Manager
Tel: 01223 290439
E.mail: [email protected]

Mothers Union Eaton Bray with Edlesborough

March

We met in the Coffee Tavern on 8th March and thirteen members attended. Mary opened the meeting with prayers and then introduced Mr. Reg Fossey to talk about his experiences as Mayor of Dunstable, his period of office running for two years from May 1995.

Grove House in High Street North was the official residence and it was the Mayor's policy for anyone to be able to visit the Mayor's Parlour each Friday. Mr Fossey attended 390 functions during the first year; he also had to provide his own transport. He judged the floats in the Eaton Bray Carnival for two years. He did not like heights, but during a visit to the Fire Brigade he was carried down the ladder!

Childrens' fetes and charitable functions he particularly enjoyed and was always very busy at Christmas.

Mrs Fossey enjoyed being the Mayoress. She arranged a Flower Festival at Grove House and raised £7,000. It was the Mayor's duty to attend many funerals and on Remembrance Sunday the Police always stopped the traffic. The Mayor's Ball was a special function which they both enjoyed both years. At the presentation of prizes at a children's dance competition held at Manshead School, a one-armed barman was in attendance. He also attended two 100th birthday celebrations and presented both ladies with their telegrams from the Queen.

Mr Fossey's talk was very interesting, enlightening and amusing, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

June gave the vote of thanks and the meeting closed with Grace at 4pm.

Dunstable Church of England Schools

(Ashton Middle School & Manshead Upper School)

Parents are reminded that if they intend to apply in the autumn for children to be admitted to either of these Schools in September 2007 on the basis that they are practising members of the Church of England, the Governors require to be assured that they have attended public worship on at least one Sunday each month during the six months preceding the application.

The clergy of the North Chilterns Group have agreed that they will sign applications only when they have written evidence that the Governors' attendance criteria have been satisfied. Anyone who will be making such an application should ask for an attendance card at the church, and ensure that they have it signed by the Vicar or a Churchwarden each time they attend. Without such evidence of regular attendance the Vicar will not be able to sign the application.

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Church of St Mary the Virgin, Eaton Bray with Edlesborough